The Marksman and The Warrior

Bombs and Bullets

"I find that fucking hard to believe. Like there's ever a plan of yours that I'd enjoy." Bakugo scoffed derisively as he pried Izuku's arm off himself, "So, what, you got something in those shitty notebooks of yours? Gonna pull something out of your quirkless ass and humiliate yourself?"

"Oh my god, Bakugo, I'm trying to be considerate here!" Izuku felt like tearing his hair out, "You gotta meet me halfway, okay? You're a smart guy, I know you're not stupid enough to think you can beat All Might in a one-on-one fight. But here's an idea, you can be the one to take him down - I don't care about that, but we need to fight smart, not hard. That means you need to at least take advantage of the openings I give you, alright?"

With a death glare, Bakugo gritted his teeth, "Fine."

"Good. Now, here's what's gonna happen..."

...

Toshinori was scanning the rooftops. Young Midoriya had sought the high ground almost immediately when he attacked, which was good, but it wasn't enough to have a good tactical position. 

Toshinori freely admits that Young Midoriya's sniping threw him off his game a bit, especially when the bullets started containing more than just pressurized air. 

That being said, he didn't truly believe that Young Midoriya and Young Bakugo were working together. Merely that they were piggybacking off of each other's attacks on the fly. He called out again, "Come out and play, heroes! How do you expect to save civilians if you're too cowardly to face me?!"

"Fuck off, All Might! I'm here now, aren't I?!" Young Bakugo's brash voice was all the warning Toshinori got before a blast of heat and pressure impacted into his back. 

Almost immediately after, a bullet sank into his shoulder and expanded into a holographic bubble barrier, similar to the one that, and Toshinori would never admit this out loud, had fooled him into believing that its purpose was to defend Young Bakugo, rather than to be a red herring. 

Toshinori flashed his signature grin as he turned around and reared his fist back to punch at Young Bakugo, who for some reason was missing a bracer, but the bubble barrier's position around his shoulder made it very difficult to swing his arm as it practically fixed his right arm to his body. This momentary distraction as he switched from his right arm to his left was all that was required to have another fiery explosion detonate in front of his face. 

Toshinori staggered back, not because of the pain, but because in a flash, he realized that Young Midoriya's technology was more impressive than even Power Loader's. This fleeting thought quickly escaped his attention, however, when another bullet impacted his left side, right where his injury was. This bullet seemed to be filled with nothing but pressurized air, but another explosion from Young Bakugo revealed that the pressurized air was pure oxygen, which ignited very easily. 

The blow stung quite a bit, Toshinori must admit, especially since he'd been injured there before. However, he wasn't the Symbol of Peace for nothing. Working through pain isn't anything new to him. He retaliated against Young Bakugo (the only available target at the moment since he kept scanning the rooftops and somehow missing Young Midoriya every time) with a punch from his left arm that unleashed a howling tempest that destroyed the buildings behind the explosive boy.

"Now, where is Young Midoriya?" He muttered to himself as he took a breath and started looking around, but he failed to locate the green-haired sniper despite his rifle having fired (loudly) twice. 

"Don't fucking worry about Deku, All Might. Your opponent is me!" Toshinori's eyes widened as Young Bakugo leapt out of the dust cloud left behind by his attack and latched onto his back, emitting a flash of bright light from his hands, "Stun Grenade!"

'Stupid! Letting your guard down around an opponent is the easiest way to be defeated!' Toshinori chided himself as he blinked rapidly, clearing his vision as Young Bakugo unleashed a series of quick but concentrated explosions directly into the back of his head. He quickly grabbed the boy by the scruff of the neck and slammed him into the ground with admittedly more force than probably necessary.

"Stay down, hero, if you know what's good for you." Toshinori crossed his arms as he waited for his vision to clear, but before it did, a click brought his attention to his wrist. Specifically, the one he used to slam Young Bakugo into the ground. 

"Ha... Gotcha, bitch."

A digitized rendition of Nezu's cheerful voice announced the victory of Young Midoriya and Young Bakugo. 

When Toshinori's vision cleared, he realized that beneath him wasn't actually Young Bakugo. It was Young Midoriya, who had his pistol in one hand and one of Young Bakugo's bracers in the other. Young Bakugo himself was actually standing to Toshinori's right. 

"What- how?" Toshinori couldn't help but ask. He felt Young Bakugo's explosions on the back of his head, surely! How did he grab Young Midoriya instead of Young Bakugo?

"You got careless, All Might." Midoriya wheezed as he propped himself up, "Half of your upper back is covered in a bubble shield. How could you have possibly felt Kacchan on your back? We switched out halfway through the struggle while you were still blinded and disoriented from the light, and you caught me instead of him. He just so happened to have the handcuffs instead of me."

"But- the explosions!" Toshinori protested, "They were clearly Young Bakugo's quirk and not pressurized air!"

"The damn nerd's idea." Young Bakugo spoke up, crossing his arms and pointing his chin at Young Midoriya, "Apparently Deku's guns had explosive rounds."

"Th-they were new additions." Young Midoriya rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "A-and experimental."

...

The story ended, and all that could be heard was Katamina's laughing, "Hahahahaha! So you're telling me that you pulled a Houdini on All Might?!"

"Well... kinda, I guess?" Izuku chuckled nervously, "It was more like a sleight of hand trick except, well, you know, it was our entire bodies that switched, not just something handheld."

A/N: And that's that. This one's going to be finished well before it's published. A storm knocked out the electricity and data in my neighborhood, so I have to wait for my wifi to return before posting this chapter. It might be at midnight, it might be at an ungodly hour in the morning because I hate myself. Whatever the case, hope you enjoyed.

Timeless_95, signing out.

Oh, actually, before I go: I don't actually have much to talk about in these author's notes anymore, so I guess I'll regale you guys with D&D character concepts in future chapters unless something really big happens. If you're interested, great. If you're not... well, don't read the end notes, I guess.

Anyways, actually signing out now.